Just For Men Touch Of Gray, 1 Application (Pack of 3)

Comment: I just started using this product at 53. My hair was about 70/30 gray/brown. When I first used this I left it in for the full 5 minutes... I ended up with 20/80 gray/brown... a bit of an unnatural look for me. After some experimenting I found that if I left in for 2 minutes I ended up with a nice 40/60 gray/brown, a nice salt and pepper combo that I had in my mid to late 40's. I have short hair, and I also found that I could get 3-4 applications from a single tube if, after each use, I carefully squeezed the air from the tube before resealing the cap and rinse the little comb attachment thoroughly. I get my hair cut every 2-3 weeks and use this after every hair cut. It seems to look best after your hair has been washed for a few days, so if you want to look your best for an event plan ahead.

Comment: Did not follow directions, intentionally, as I wanted to titrate the effect after getting to know how the product would work with my hair.

Before application: I had dark brown hair until my mid to late 20's (am now 50) which later turned black and gray. Some residual brown but only 1-3%. Used to havce some red, but perhaps 0.1% of hair, and mostly in the facial hair. I now have 70:30 salt:pepper hair (white:black) in discrete areas, but 90:10 salt:pepper in other places. Cropped to about 1.5 inches uniformly. Facial hair is similarly mottled, with mustache 50:50, but beard nearly white.

So, the target overall I'd like to achieve is 50:50 salt:pepper.

This means that my end goal is perhaps where other folks are *starting* from.

Scalp hair
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1)Squeezed out only enough to wet the exit points on the comb visibly. This produced small beads of product between the tines of the comb for a total amount of perhaps 1/16-1/8 teaspoon.

2)Ran the comb from front to back over the top of my scap.

3)Did NOT squeeze the applicator in the process.

4) repeated step 1 and 2 perhaps 8-10 times overall, but not to the entirety of my. That is, I focused mostly on the existing white (90:10 salt:pepper)areas, and less so on the 70:30 salt: pepper areas.

5) total application time was min 5 minutes (as counted from the end of the series of applications) and perhaps a total of 8 minutes since the start of the series of applications.

6) rinsed and washed as directed.

The result is fairly significant darkening and blending (more even) appearance. I took a picture before and after and can see the difference as a more even salt:pepper effect over my entire scalp hair, and a very slight darkening overall. That is, the effect is probably close to 70:30/50:50 range, still somewhat uneven, but the effect is nice, I think, in that it seems more natural to have some variegation in the scalp hair for a man my age.

Facial hair
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I also (contrary to directions) used the product on my beard hair. In this case I applied to to the point of near saturation and left it on for about 3 minutes.

1) I used a small electric shaver brush to do the application, but I suspect it would have been sufficient to simply wet the hair entirely and titrate the effect by application time. Will need to experiment more. On the other hand, using the brush means one can perhaps prevent the product from coming in significant contact with the underlying skin, as we done in the scalp hair process above.

2) left it on 4 minutes then rinsed/washed as directed.

The result is that I have a pretty good match to the 50:50 salt:pepper in my mustache.

One revewer indicated that he is able to recap, careful to avoid leaving any air in the tube, and reuse. I suspect this may be the case, and would be required if one were to use this, say, twice a week on the facial hair.

Another concern would be, will the skin on my face react differently to the product than the skin on my scalp, in terms of dermatological risk (allergic reaction)? Some tingling of the face suggest there may be a risk. Will have to watch this carefully, yet and perhaps be more conservative in the application to avoid touching the skin underneath. I know that my face is in fact sensitive enough to get hives or rashes if I let my facial hair grow too long, so another warning sign.


Speculation
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1) how often will I have to repeat and will the process eventually darken my hair more than is desirable?
2) will a consistent effect be hard to achieve given the process used above?
3) what the risk of a reaction of facial skin vs scalp? Perhaps an answer in the literature [...]?
4) will closing the tube and reusing continue to as well as the other reviewer indicated?

Overall reaction, tentatively, is that it appears to be an effective means for me to take about 5-10 years off my apparent age, but moving 90:10 pataches back toward 70:30, and the darket areas back toward 50:50, for natural, mixed effect.

Comment: This is the first time I've used any kind of hair coloring and must admit, I was skeptical of how it would look. After trying it, I am now a believer. It looks very natural and is easy to use. I would recommend going with a color one shade lighter than your natural hair color.

Comment: I just tried this stuff for the first time tonight, and it worked perfectly. My hair that wasn't gray stayed natural, and I'd say about half of the gray was colored.

I had been debating about coloring my hair for some time now, but was afraid of looking unnatural. My fears were unfounded. Basically I now look the same as I did a few years ago when I was less gray.

Was easy to use. Quick. Much less smelly than my wife's hair color products - and no significant residual smell.

Comment: The last few years my greying brown hair began turning mostly white around the edges. I've used other brands but wasn't happy with the results. This product isn't as aggressive as I'd like but it does a good job of deepening the color of areas that still have some color and adding color to the grey and white areas. The overall look meets my expectations. My wife says it makes me look a little younger. But its not the big change I was hoping for. I've used the product four times now and find that the result isn't cumulative. But by using it monthly I'm able to maintain a modest improvement.

So don't look for this product to fully color your hair. Its a subtle change and people do notice but, of course, you don't need to tell them you're using hair color. I should add that its relatively convenient to use, takes about 10 minutes to apply plus a shower to wash it out. A bit messy but it comes with plastic gloves. Keep some tissues handy to wipe up any that drips on the sink or onto skin.